After long delays, Origins of the Tarot is now at Random House warehouses and ships in a week or two.

Re the thesis of the book...Sufi/Eastern Christian and Neoplatonic philosophy are a major part of the book. Sufi influences are covered by the third chapter, with Neoplatonic and Greek developmental worldviews taking up much of the rest of the book. I suggest in Chapter 3 that Ibn 'Arabi's great cosmic cycle, identified by Image-Exemplars and Attributes of God, formed the original nomenclature and hierarchy of the tarot system. Note that the Kabballah arose at the same time that Ibn Arabi lived in Spain and Constantinople.

After long delays, Origins of the Tarot is now at Random House warehouses and ships in a week or two.

Re the thesis of the book...Sufi/Eastern Christian and Neoplatonic philosophy are a major part of the book. Sufi influences are covered by the third chapter, with Neoplatonic and Greek developmental worldviews taking up much of the rest of the book. I suggest in Chapter 3 that Ibn 'Arabi's great cosmic cycle, identified by Image-Exemplars and Attributes of God, formed the original nomenclature and hierarchy of the tarot system. Note that the Kabballah arose at the same time that Ibn Arabi lived in Spain and Constantinople.

-Dai

I'm really proud of you Psykees. It takes guts and commitment to see a project like this through, and I admire you for it. I very much look forward to reading your book sometime soon. I'm skeptical, but open-minded enough to give it a good go, and I'm certain that I will learn from it.

I wish you good luck and success.

The Tarot will lose all its vitality for one who allows himself to be side-tracked by its pedantry. - Aleister Crowley

As I peruse the varying tarot forums addressing history, I am taken with how little examination there has been regarding Venice-Alexandria-Constantinople communities and connections.

Clearly the whole realm of Eastern Christian and Sufi philosophy, along with their Neoplatonic cores, deserve study by tarot enthusiasts. Not to mention Buddhism, Taoism et al. Reducing all spiritual esotericism to astrology/numerology and the Kabbalah is quite absurd. To historically examine tarot cards, which everyone agrees are tied to Muslim-designed playing cards of Mameluke Alexandria, and then ignore the spiritual systems that Alexandria was awash in makes equally little sense. Time for this to be rectified.

At the same time, we should be careful to not assume that just because the pips and court cards of tarot are based on the Mamluk cards that the trumps are in any manner derivative of the religious views of those who spread the Mamluk cards. The Mamluks cards have never expanded to include trumps, so when people generally discuss the trumps and its sequence, to harken back to Mamluk cards may give an incorrect 'direction' of influence.